Family Friendly

Mother Farm (マザー牧場) is an expansive working “entertainment” farm that is located in Chiba’s central Boso Peninsula countryside sitting 300m atop Mt. Kanozan. These qualities combine to create the perfect outing for those wanting to escape the metropolis’s traffic-choked, building-lined streets and looking for some open space with the kids in tow. It’s a great option to get some fresh air, natural greenery, and a little peace and quiet. The ice cream is also transcendent. This isn’t your typical theme park; there’s even some great history here. The farm was the idea of Hisakichi Maeda, the founder of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, who later developed Tokyo Tower. Growing up in prewar rural Osaka, his mother often said, “if only we had one more cow, we could prosper.” That must have stuck with him because, in 1962, he opened the farm, the name of which is to honor his mother. Within its 250-hectare confines, you will find horses, pigs, sheep, alpacas, goats, and cows. This also means the kids can enjoy pony rides, horse feeding, cow milking, butter churning, piggy racing, duck parading, sheep shearing, and general ogling at the other animals in the livestock sections. Mother Farm is also known…